Nick Cohen

Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer, a blogger for The Spectator and TV critic for Standpoint magazine. He formerly wrote for the London Evening Standard and the New Statesman. Cohen has written four books: Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous (1999), a collection of his journalism; Pretty Straight Guys (2003), a highly critical account of the New Labour project; What's Left? (2007), where he describes as the story of how the liberal left of the 20th century came to support the far right of the 21st;^[1] and Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England (2009).

The Orwell Prize for political writing shortlisted What's Left? in 2008.^[2]

In 2006, he was a leading signatory to the Euston Manifesto, which proposed "a new political alignment", in which the left opposes terrorism and anti-Americanism.

Cohen's paternal grandfather was Jewish, the son of immigrants from Tsarist Russia at the time of the pogroms, who became a Communist and married a non-Jew.

Cohen is an atheist^[3][4] who grew up in Manchester^[5] and was educated at Hertford College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). He began his career at the Birmingham Post and Mail before joining The Independent as a reporter. He lives in Islington with his wife and their son.^[6]

References

1. ^ "Biography", nickcohen.net.
2. ^ "Shortlist 2008", The Orwell Prize
3. ^ Nick Cohen "Jesus! I’m turning into a Jew!", The Jewish Chronicle, 12 February 2009, as reproduced on Nick Cohen's website.
4. ^ Nick Cohen "Hatred is turning me into a Jew", The Jewish Chronicle, 12 February 2009
5. ^ Nick Cohen. Waiting for the Etonians pg. 23
6. ^ 'Law without Order', New Statesman 2004, 'Waiting for the Etonians' pg.99

Bibliography

• Cohen, Nick (2000). Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous. Verso Books. ISBN 1-85984-288-7
• Cohen, Nick (2003). Pretty Straight Guys. paperback edition: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-22004-5
• Cohen, Nick (2007). What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way. Fourth Estate. ISBN 0-007-22969-0
• Cohen, Nick (2009). Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England. Fourth Estate. ISBN 0-007-30892-2

External links

• Nick Cohen's website
• Shire Network News podcast interview Nick Cohen is interviewed by Tom Paine 3 July 2007
• Nick Cohen interview 1 Nick Cohen on Little Atoms Radio Show 20 January 2006.
• Nick Cohen interview 2 Nick Cohen on Little Atoms Radio Show 16 February 2007.